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Oskar Strok

Oskar Davidovich Strok was born in Dvinsk (then Russia, now the Republic of Latvia), on December 24, 1892. He authored more than 300 tangos.

His father was a musician in an theater orchestra. Since he was very young he was interested in music. He learned to play the violin and later the piano. At the age of 12 he started studing the piano at the Conservatory of St. Petersburg. One of the first musical compositions by Oscar Strok, which led him to fame, was the music to a poem by Pushkin played later by Anastasia Valceva, popular singer in the early twentieth century. In the 1920 and 1930 Strok worked in Latvia as a pianist and director of a dance band, composed music ballads, waltzes and jazz. In 1928, he made his first concert tour to France. After the Second World War, Western music was banned in the Soviet Union, and Strok, who had already composed more than 300 tangos and other musical works, began playing in the best orchestras in the world, his music achieved great popularity in Europe , was heard in all cities-Paris, Warsaw, Berlin-in restaurants and cafes, concert halls and dance, and recorded thousands of records. Among his most famous tangos are: * Ojos Negros (Black Eyes) * Cuando vuelva la primavera (When Spring Comes Again) * No te vayas (Do not Leave) * Rapsodia Lunar (Lunar Rhapsody) * Dime por que (Tell me why) * Musenka. * Duerme mi pobre corazon (Sleep, my poor heart) * Ojos Azules (Blue Eyes) * Mi ultimo tango (My last tango) The tangos composed by Oskar Strok also had great success in Yugoslavia, Romania, Hungary and the Soviet Union, and after his tour in 1935 by Shanghai and Tokyo reached great fame in China and Japan. Therefore, he was called the "king of tango." Until the last few minutes of his life, this great composer continued to create music, even at the age of 80 he sat at the piano and played beautifully. He died in Riga, June 22, 1975.